we are called is more than merely lamenting the prevalence of such sins, it is separating ourselves from them as far as in our power; not practising them, not countenancing them by our example, but opposing them by the quiet and consistent tenor of our life;-opposing the world's drunkenness by our Christian temperance,-the world's uncleanness by our spiritual purity,-the world's covetousness by our Christ-like generosity,-the world's pride and vanity and luxury by our Christian meekness and contentment,-the world's Sabbath-breaking by our joyful Sabbath-keeping,-the world's poor lifeless morality by our striving after a more divine morality, opposing, in one word, all the evils that surround us in our several localities by the cultivation of a heavenly piety, so that, though in the world, we shall yet not be of it.

It is easy to take up a lamentation about the sins of the times, and we may think that we do not amiss when we confess them; but to enable us, after the example of Daniel, to confess our own sins and the sins of our people in truth and sincerity, we must be living Daniel's stern life of temperance, Daniel's life of daily prayer, Daniel's life of strict integrity and unspotted blamelessness. Then, when we do humble ourselves on account of the sins of our time, and carry them to the throne of grace, and ask God to forgive them for the sake of Jesus, He shall accept us and our service of lowly abasement, and, in answer to our request, shall turn away His wrath and grant His favour. Let God's people cultivate the spirit of humiliation. The season is a fitting one for men humbling themselves before the Lord, and confessing the sins of the land. Penitential humiliation is the way to gracious exaltation.

III. PRAYER.

All true Christians pray. Prayer is their breath. They cannot do without prayer. They must breathe the atmosphere of the throne of grace. At the mercy-seat they must pour out their hearts to God; and there, too, they must receive the inpouring of God's grace. Moses prayed. David prayed. Daniel prayed. Paul prayed. The Lord of saints prayed. All saints pray still. We pray. The unconverted and the unbelieving, some of them, pray, i.e., they bend the knee, and say their form of prayer; but those only pray with power and prevalency who, believers themselves, pray in faith, and whose prayers are the expressions of the desires of the humble heart-the pleadings of a soul in conscious union with God through Jesus Christ, for promised and felt needed blessing.

Here, then, are we Christians, living amid the perilous times of the last days;-living amid the secular and spiritual activities of this epoch of the world's history;-living when great duties are

to be done, and great temptations are to be resisted;-living amid the throes of revolution, and the decadence of false systems;-living when the heathen are crying to us from all quarters, Come over and help us;" and Christ is calling to His Church, Awake, arise, put on strength, go forward, for behold, "I make all things new." Surely, at such a time, and when a new year is being entered upon, prayer, earnest believing prayer, becomes God's praying ones. Various topics for special prayer at this season may be named.

First. Prayer should be made for a more eminent piety among professing Christians, in order to their greater usefulness. We do fear that Christians in general are too easily satisfied with the measure and degree of their piety. They are content with a piety whose faith is small, whose love is little beyond the lukewarm point, and which cannot devise great and generous things for God, and far less attempt such things. This is not the piety that will suit these sifting times, not the piety which will ever be distinguished for its usefulness and its power. The Church needs a more eminent piety on the part of its members;—a piety disentangled from formality, freed from worldliness-in one word, instinct with heavenly life, and which can maintain itself, and grow and flourish in Sardis, where the faithful are few; in Laodicea, where the spiritual temperature is low, as well as in the most favoured circumstances. This higher standard of piety cannot be reached and maintained without the quickening and sanctifying energy of the Holy Spirit. Christians, members of our Churches, you are not what you ought to be,-not so zealous, not so holy, not so Goddevoted. Arouse yourselves, then; call upon God; invoke Him to give you the Holy Spirit in larger measure, that, filled with the Spirit, you may fulfil the high functions to which God in His providence is now calling you, as become the servants and the people of the Most High.

Second. Prayer should be made to God especially for the young and rising generation. "The fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?" The fathers are not here. They have left the earth. The prophets have died like other men. Soon those who are fathers in the family and in the Church now, shall leave us. Ere long, those who are now God's prophets and witnesses shall be laid in the dust. How important that the race that is to come should know the Lord, and be thoroughly equipped for carrying forward the Lord's work. We, of this generation, have, to a large extent, the moulding of the race that is to come in our power. Parents and ministers, and others, but especially parents, must do

their respective parts in teaching them the way of the Lord, in instructing them in the fear of God, in instilling into their minds right principles, in imbuing their hearts with the love of God and His truth; while we must pray to God to fulfil the promise of His covenant," I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring." Oh, were parents teaching their children as they should do, were all grandmothers like Lois, and all mothers like Eunice, and all fathers and heads of households like Abraham, and God's Spirit given in answer to prayer-how many Timothys might come forth from our households to bless the Church and the world, and a race would grow up all around, in our country villages, in our rural homesteads, as well as in our great cities, wise, intelligent, God-fearing! We must pray more directly for the conversion of our youth-for the turning of their hearts to God. And youth, too, must be admonished with all affectionateness to give God their hearts.

Third. Prayer should be specially made by the Church of God 'for the downfall and overturning of all false systems. One terrible system of evil has lately been destroyed. We mean slavery in America―sure augury of the ultimate overthrow of everything in our social system which is opposed to truth, to justice, to humanity. The Papacy has received some rude shocks of late; as for instance, in Austria and in Spain; but though only the shadow of its former self, it still spreads its baneful influence over many lands and many peoples; it is still a great power in the earth, and with its well-known cunning and skill is trying to adapt itself to the ideas of modern society. The danger is, that in becoming less a political power it will become a greater spiritual power. Mahommedanism is becoming weaker and weaker; and it seems as if, ere long, its head, in order to save his throne, will require to become Christian. Still, in the East, it holds vast millions in bondage. Hinduism and other forms of heathenism are still terrible powers in the world. Through these forms of idolatry Satan still holds hundreds of millions in dark and cruel bondage. Oh, these great mountains of evil and wickedness! Oh, these huge dark, frowning, strongholds of Satan in the world! How, how, are they to be overturned, and men delivered from their power and bondage? How was American slavery destroyed? The battlefields of Gettysburg, and around Richmond, answer. How was the Papacy weakened and crippled in Austria, yea, even in Europe? Let the battlefield of Sadowa tell how. And, if need be, in order to the final overturning of these false systems, by means of which Satan still holds men under his sway, wars and revolutions in states and kingdoms are required, God, in His all

wise and righteous providence shall permit them. The Church must meanwhile pray-pray with ever growing earnestness, that God will bring to pass His own word: "I will overturn, overturn, overturn: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is.' Such overturnings may be accompanied with much suffering and great loss; with much confusion and disorder, which may well make weak men tremble, and fill the strongest even with alarm. Be it so, they are the terrible things in righteousness by which God sometimes answers His people's prayers, the rough work of the men that precede an army and prepare the way for its march,-the removing out of the way the stumbling-blocks that hinder the advance of the peaceful reign of Christ. The Church must not be afraid to pray, Overturn, Lord, overturn. And she must learn, amid all overturnings and upheavings, without fear to sing the good old song of faith and hope,

"God is our refuge and our strength,

In straits a present aid;

Therefore, although the earth remove,
We will not be afraid.

Though hills amidst the seas be cast;
Though waters roaring make

And troubled be; yea, though the hills
By swelling seas do shake."

Fourth. Connected with prayer for the downfall of Antichrist and the overturning of all false systems, prayer should be made by the Church of God without ceasing for the establishment of Christ's kingdom in the world. The world is His by right. It is to be His in fact. "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee." To bring about the accomplishment of this and similar predictions manifold agencies are presently in operation, such as Bible Societies, Tract Societies, Missionary Societies. All the Churches are awakening to the necessity and duty of carrying the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the outcasts at home as well as to the heathen abroad. It is well that so many agencies are at work for the conversion of the world to Christ, and are being wrought by human instrumentality. A higher power is needed to bring about the grand result. The power needed is power from on high-power to quicken the slumbering conscience, and make men in thousands and tens, of thousands cry, "What must we do?"-power to work mightily in them that believe, and keep in a vigorous activity the spiritual life in their souls-the power of God, the power of God's Spirit. This is the power that is wanted. How is it to be obtained? "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them." "If ye,

being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" See Elijah on the Mount Carmel. The priests of Baal are there, in all their force and rage; they have invoked their god in vain. The time has come for Elijah to call upon his God. He calls; God answers by fire. Church of God, call you upon God with Elijah's faith and energy. God shall answer, and baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire. See Elijah again, on the same Mount Carmel. Rain is needed, for the heavens have given none for some years. He falls upon his knees, yea, he prostrates himself upon the ground as in an agony of prayer. He prays, he continues praying, and soon a small dark speck is seen in the heavens; it enlarges as he prays, until the heavens are covered with a cloud of black filled with rain. Again the prophet prays; that prayer is as though an electric spark had passed through it. All at once it burst in a shower of precious blessing upon the dry ground. Church of God, again thus pray. Ye sacramental host of Jehovah-Jesus thus pray. Our spiritual heavens, which are almost like brass over our heads, shall erewhile be covered with clouds charged with gracious influence, soon in answer to the touch of believing prayer to drop their fatness upon the world, turning its barrenness into fertility, its deformity into beauty; transforming its moral wildernesses into a fruitful field, and making all its waste places like Eden-like a garden which the Lord hath blessed.

From the nature of these remarks on Thanksgiving, Humiliation, Prayer, as indicative of duties to which we are now called, it will be observed that the spirit which we, as Christians, ought to cultivate at this season is one of gratitude, mingled with sorrow; one of hope, mingled with fear. There are many things for which we have reason to be profoundly thankful;-there are sins and evils which may well humble and abase us in the dust before God; but there is much, too, to fill our hearts with gladness and hope—such as God's mercies, past and present, God's covenant, God's faithfulness, God's promises. The world, too, is progressing. We are getting better. We are advancing to a higher and better state of things. Advancing, it is true, not through pleasant fields and fruitful vineyards, but through difficulties and hardships, through defeats and disaster; but we are advancing, and it is better to advance through these hard and difficult paths than through more pleasant ways. When we see old forms, which our fathers loved, passing away, and old institutions, which they venerated so much, and through which their piety was nurtured, becoming unvital, and showing signs of decay, when we see old watchwords losing their charm, and the